[img width=640 height=480]http://i.imgur.com/xtQjXl.jpg[/img]


And Garou: Mark of the Wolves is done! How come it's not called Fatal Fury anyway? It's got to be the best Fatal Fury game out there. Of course I'm saying this having played only a handful of the Fatal Fury series, but this includes the original -- first on an actual NeoGeo cab back in the day, and then soon after the home port on SNES. And though I didn't stick with the series too closely, I have remained an SNK fighting fan, even if I've really only slowly cherry-picked various entries in their series' here and there over the years.

That said, I can say that I'm quite glad I picked this one for my Summer Gaming list. First off, it was refreshing to go back to a fighting game where you (a) pick just a single character to master rather than a team from (b) a rather small roster. That's right, I said a small roster is a good thing. At least in this case. It was fun to not feel overwhelmed by familiarizing myself with 30 or 40 possible fighters. In fact, I started with Terry as he's quite familiar to me. Got myself warmed up (after picking up a SF4 fightpad for 360) and then started experimenting with other fighters.


[img width=165 height=165]http://hardcoregaming101.net/fatalfury/hotaru.png[/img]


And then I picked Hotaru. That's really all it took for this fine game to click with me completely. She's fast and great with kicks. And just like that I made it through Arcade Mode. I should confess that continues happened. This wasn't a 1CC. But I had made the deal with myself that beating this game meant using three continues (or less) -- or rather spending one dollar in the arcade. And in all honesty, I did use that third continue and was biting my nails on that last boss battle.

Ah, but cross another game off the list! And it's a game I highly recommend to any other fighting fans who may have overlooked it.


[img width=480 height=640]http://i.imgur.com/X1YmCl.jpg[/img]


Other Progress:

Cthulhu Saves the World - is what I've been playing the most of. I've put several hours into it and am currently wandering around a green cat's spaceship. I think the game is fantastic.

Daytona USA - I've done a bit of racing. Still on that first Beginner track, and my best placing so far was 9th. I still have a lot to learn on this one.

X-Men - I played with some random stranger online. But I disconnected after three continues (as above). Although I'd really like to try to get a six-player co-op game going to experience it in its fully glory.

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